Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
www.elsevier.com/locate/jfoodeng
Abstract
The introduction of natural fruit bres as an encapsulating agent has demonstrated encouraging results as a replacement carrier for
spray drying sticky materials. The combination of these fruit bres and bioactives (Hibiscus sabdaria L.) has created a novel nutraceutical product suitable for a variety of applications in functional food manufacturing. Through characterisation of the product, it appears
that the material is appropriate in terms of its moisture content and encapsulation of the bioactive material. It also maintains a free-owing form under appropriately controlled humidity conditions suitable for manufacturing purposes. The presence of the bioactive material
in the bres does not appear to aect the product size or shape signicantly. An unusual moisture change phenomenon was observed
during exposure of the spray-dried powder to ambient air. A rapid moisture sorption and gradual slow desorption pattern was seen
and is believed to be associated with crystallisation behaviour.
2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Amorphous; Bioactive; Crystallisation; Encapsulation; Fruit bre; Spray drying
1. Introduction
Spray drying is a one-step processing operation for turning a liquid feed into a powder product, minimising handling while reducing the bulk weight and size of the
powder, and also preserving the product by reducing the
water activity required for bacterial degradation (Hayashi,
1989). Spray drying has also been used to micro-encapsulate material since the product may be encapsulated by a
particular carrier used in the feed slurry by the phenomenon known as selective diusion. Common carriers for
these encapsulation processes include carbohydrates, gums
and cellulose esters and ethers. Combinations of carriers
are also used to provide ecient and stable agents for particular feed materials (Re, 1998). Natural food bres such
as waste fruit peels and skins are possible carriers that have
not been thoroughly investigated.
*
Corresponding author. Tel.: +61 2 9351 5661; fax: +61 2 9351 2854.
E-mail address: dchiou@chem.eng.usyd.edu.au (D. Chiou).
0260-8774/$ - see front matter 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.jfoodeng.2007.01.021
85
Table 1
Saturated salt solutions for equilibrium moisture content measurements
Relative humidity (%)
10.0
20.0
32.5
51.0
60.0
75.0
89.0
Zinc chloride
Potassium acetate
Magnesium chloride
Calcium nitrate
Iron chloride
Sodium chloride
Magnesium sulfate
86
Table 2
Characteristics of produced powders
Sample Number
Fractal dimension ()
R0-0
R0-1
R0-2
8.3
8.1
10.7
16.4
15.5
23.0
63
68
57
2.0
2.2
2.2
87
The sorption properties are important for storage considerations. The powder appears to quickly reach moisture
contents in equilibrium with ambient conditions within a
24 h period. The increase of moisture content is undesired
after spraying since it causes some dissolution of the dried
bioactive or change in its state, resulting in caking. The
rearrangement from high energy, amorphous, to low
energy, crystalline, states also occurs more quickly with
Fig. 4. Fibre only control from the MRC 600 confocal system. The absence of a visible uorescent response means no bioactive is present.
88
Fig. 5. Fibre with bioactive, from the same system as g. 4. Response signals are of bioactive uorescence.
In order to be at a water activity of 0.6, the moisture content of the powders would have to reach 2022%. When the
powder was left at an ambient relative humidity of 50%,
the moisture content of the powders reached 15%. Given
this consideration, the product powder must be stored at
a relative humidity under 50% to prevent micro-organisms
from developing.
4.2. Crystallisation of amorphous powders
In this section, the moisture sorption behaviour
observed in Fig. 2 is examined in more detail. The
Fig. 6. Water sorption of milk powders containing lactose at relative humidity of 66.2: total solids (a) and SNF basis (b) and 76.4% total solids (c) and
SNF basis (d) at 24 C. Experimental water contents are shown for dehydrated skim milk (s), low fat milk with 1% (h) and 1.9% fat (D), and whole milk
(x). The amount of fat aected the rate of loss of adsorbed water caused by lactose crystallisation. (Quote and gure taken directly from Fig. 5, Jouppila
and Roos (1994)).
Fig. 7. BET and GAB isotherm tting for fruit bre comparison with
timber.
89
90
91